What would you say to someone that believes and knows in their heart that they will never believe but they want to and...

What would you say to someone that believes and knows in their heart that they will never believe but they want to and enjoy religion and prayer.

What would God say to them? I honestly believe that many people will never believe.

There is no evidence or reason to believe in the probability of Jesus Christ our saviour. Not in the traditions of the church, nor the reliability of the scripture, nor the immediacy of ones own experience.

What makes other Christians believe other than being brought up in that religion (especially ones that are scientifically and philosophically literate)?

That is literally me

seems to be a not uncommon theme in places like this.

i dont really see a solution. you cannot go into christianity wholy with it as some kind of illusion.

What would God say? Nothing helpful. He would let you burn in hell for not being able to believe. Don't fall tor that scum.

Don't you see God loves you if you will only let him in.

People believe what they want to believe.

>There is no evidence or reason to believe in the probability of Jesus Christ our saviour.

The virgin birth, sinless life, hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, wonders and miracles, and resurrection suffice.

But we have no evidence of any of those things.
Virgin birth none; bible isn't necessarily bible. Many prophecies are analysed post-hoc and with wide interpretative leniency while we have as much evidence for miracles as we do for ghosts and its not very convincing for ghosts or miracles. We have no evidence for resurrection outside the bible.

Modern scholars views of the bible make it difficult to be christian given at how much social, political and other factors shaped the bible, the choice of books/apocrypha, choice of content and inconsistency of it and the fact that the gospels aren't primary sources and we don't really have much other more contempraneous biblical literature available.

kys then, no hope.

the bible is not the infallible word of god but rather the interpretation of god from a variety of people. the bible is poetry, not law and poetry isn't evidence based. you simply take what you like and use it to develop your way of thought. it doesn't matter if anything in it's real, they're just metaphors open for your own interpretation.

>tfw baptised at 26
>live in extremely secularised country
>raised by atheists
>always believed, prayed regularly as a kid

but christianity is based on what will happen in reality. you will be saved, you will not die. What you said still leaves a lack of evidence

which country? how comes you became religious? and which denomination if you have one?

Reminds me of something Flannery O'Connor once said;
> “I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child's faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.

What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you feel you can't believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God. ”

As someone who just recently became Christian (from a completely non-religious background), and still has doubts, I can say that it begins as a desire to believe in something greater, even if you don't know it for sure. Pray, even if you don't know how, because it will change you more than anything. The desire to believe comes from God, and if you are looking for Him you'll find Him. Traditions of the Church can change and grow, scripture is not infallible or literal, but there is a fundamental truth behind it. That truth is God and that truth can be experienced if you are open to it.

lel my dad was raised by hardcore communists and was baptized at 34 and became a Catholic and says a rosary almost every day

weird stuff

We absolutely do.

That you choose to throw out all the evidence and cry that there's no evidence is on you, not God. He made sure there's sufficient evidence to believe in him, or not to, depending on what you are inclined to do.

So far, you are inclined to spend eternity in the dark, and on fire, having neglected the only means of salvation known to mankind.

Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
More Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
God on the Dock
Cold Case for the Resurrection

There are sufficient resources for you to educate yourself and lose this childish "there's no evidence" nonsense.

He's still lost.

why is it childish? why don't you promote some of your evidence then?

Hey, i never said any of this was on God or anyone else. There is an issue to the matter of salvation to those that do not know and have not had the chance. That's why purgatory was invented by catholicism too.

An idea can't love.

>What would God say to them?
"I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquities."

Nobody can force you to be a Christian, you just come tovrealization through his words. I was an apatheist, an agnostic, not anymore.

Jesus convinced me. Maybe some day, he may even convince you.

A man can't be born of a virgin and come back to life.

Your post made me realize why Camus considered using religion to come to terms with the absurdity of existence to be intellectual suicide, and how he's absolutely right in doing so.

what a bitch.

>apatheist

>tfw pictures racist south african who shoots blacks and english people whilst refusing to speak anything but afrikaans.

So how did you get out of that then?

why is that?

Because you've basically abandoned your own intellectual faculties in regards to this particular issue. You've chosen to accept a canned answer that doesn't make any sense because the question is too hard for you.